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A little under three years ago Stoffel Vandoorne enjoyed an impressive Formula One debut in Bahrain. Standing in for the injured Fernando Alonso in an uncompetitive McLaren, he qualified ahead of team-mate and former world champion Jenson Button and finished 10th to score an F1 point at his first attempt.

With Button's retirement at the end of that season, the Belgian secured a full-time race seat at McLaren. But two difficult years at a team in crisis left him without an F1 seat for 2019.

When it was announced that he would join the new HWA Racelab team for the 2018/19 Formula E season, it looked like a chance for success. All four champions since the establishment of the electric series were once in F1; talented drivers shunted out of a cut-throat series.

But Vandoorne's introduction to Formula E has been tough. After qualifying an excellent fifth on his debut in Saudi Arabia, he has failed to finish in two races and finished 16th and 18th in the other two. A new series has not brought about a change of fortune.

Mercedes affiliate HWA are the only team not to score a point this season. Despite all this, the Belgian is confident of a turnaround in Hong Kong this weekend.

Stoffel Vandoorne in action in Mexico CityCredit:
Getty Images

"Obviously there has been a lot of difficulties we have been going through and we have not really been rewarded with what could have been. But there has also been plenty of positives to take away, especially the pure pace we’ve had in qualifying and testing in Mexico," he said speaking ahead of Sunday's 2019 Hong Kong ePrix.

"It shows that when we put everything together and put all the pieces together that the pace is there and that we can fight for the top positions. We have just not been able yet to put all the pieces of the puzzle together in a race weekend. That is what is missing at the moment.

"There’s been mistakes from my side, there has been a few technical problems we’ve been having in the first couple of races. It’s Hong Kong this weekend, it’s a new opportunity. [It is a] very different challenge because I feel like this is the first real Formula E track we’re going to."

It has been, he says, a steep learning curve for himself and HWA Racelab who have moved to Formula E from the DTM, the German Touring Car championship. Challenges have included learning the car's power management, dealing with a lack of power steering and the series' condensed format where practice, qualifying and the race all take place on one day.

"'[The team] have been so used to that process of running DTM cars that running Formula E is something completely different. Arriving at the first race it was a bit of a mayhem before the first practice session. We are making steps every race. Sometimes we have little steps back as well but we are making progress," he said.

"We know that as soon as we get everything working more or less like we want it to work, if we just keep things almost simple without having issues then we’ve shown the pace is there and that we can fight for the top five positions. We have done some good qualifying now we are just missing a good race."

With HWA running the Mercedes works entry next season, Vandoorne knows that he still has time to impress in an ambitious series (London returns to the calendar next year) that is growing at an impressive rate and with machinery that will evolve rapidly with help and investment from big-name manufacturers.